The U.S. Wireless Wall is crumbling. This time next year, the wall may have fallen.

Metaphorically, the Wireless Wall is not unlike the Berlin Wall, which separated East Berlin and West Berlin from 1961 until 1989. Only in the U.S. wireless industry, the Wall separates the protect-their-turf carriers from the we-want-freedom consumers.

There’s been a steady assault on the Wireless Wall this year; it’s cracked but not fallen. Yet. The latest blow comes from the No. 2 U.S. carrier, Verizon Wireless, which plans to support the Google-led Open Handset Alliance and its new, open-source software platform Android. Together OHA and Android seek openness that will allow any phone and any application to be used on any network.

Now that Google has jumped into the deep end of the pool, what are its plans for the upcoming wireless spectrum auction? Is Google playing to win? Is this a bluff? Do we as consumers want Google to win? Should we care?

As expected, Google made it official today: It will bid on the “C Block” 700 MHz spectrum offered by the U.S. Federal Communications Commission. The bids, expected to go as high as $4.6 billion, begin January 24, followed by a series of bidding rounds. An end — and answers to many questions — may not come until March.

Google’s plans for the auction are outlined in its official blog, although the company doesn’t give us much insight into its strategy. Some bloggers, including Om Malik, rightly ask if Google is in the auction to win. As Om points out, part of Google Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Eric Schmidt’s comments didn’t sound like Google is going to fight like hell and do whatever it takes to win.

Color Verizon’s announcement today however you want: an about-face, a shocking surprise, a concession to Google and the Powers-That-Be. But the No. 2 U.S. carrier opening up its network to any phone and any software application is nothing more than Verizon counter-punching in a high-stakes heavyweight bout between the carriers, Google, the government, and consumers.

I’m glad they did it. Woopie! Fantastic! Way to go! But this should have been done years ago by a notoriously protective carrier known for its iron-fisted rule over the devices running on its network. After all, the use-whatever-device-you-want approach has been practiced for years by T-Mobile and other GSM carriers, especially outside of the U.S.

As David Farber told Wired today, “So, basically, Verizon has now joined every other carrier out there — with the exception of AT&T — in saying they will allow other devices to run on their network. They’re just saying ‘me too! me too!’ ”

Three recent posts on the Web discuss the coming of the Mobile Web. One thing we can all agree on: It’s a big deal. What we don’t agree on is this: When will it get here, and will it be what we as consumers need?

The Register recently conducted a poll of its readers with more than half believing that “always-on mobile Internet access” will become “fundamental” to how they work. Recognizing that its poll is skewed — techies read the “publication”, not my insurance-salesman neighbor — The Register nonetheless rightly notes that once availability, accessibility, traffic structures, hardware, and other issues are sorted out the Mobile Web will finally arrive.

“When the technology passes the always-on threshold,” The Register writes, “you can expect people to use it with impunity.”

Which brings me to my second bit of news.